The Archive
Articles from When Saturday Comes. All 27 years of WSC are in the process of being added. This may take a while.
It is not just the so called big teams who attract international support. Janice Allen-Brade reports on Norwich City’s global fanbase
The global popularity of the big Premier League clubs is an unmistakable aspect of modern football. But one of the unwritten stories about the League’s international popularity is how many of the so-called smaller teams have foreign fanbases. Locations include Norway where Blackburn have a strong following largely cultivated in the 1990s, and Iceland where a supporters’ club for Wolves was set up in 2000. And then there’s my team, Norwich City. Why would someone living in Europe or the Far East support a club that has no real international exploits to speak of – save one golden albeit short-lived spell in Europe – and an eccentric TV chef at the helm?
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Tuesday, November 1st, 2011 - The Archive
Thom Gibbs on footballers’ love affair with video games
On Manchester United’s impeccably marketed, sickeningly luxurious and unimaginably profitable summer tour of the US the squad were kept busy. Rafael da Silva caught salmon at Seattle’s Pike Place fish market, Patrice Evra and Park Ji-sung were taught how to make deep dish pizza in Chicago and the squad visited the floor of a glass-blowing factory, with Alex Ferguson the only visitor who looked remotely interested in being there.
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Tuesday, November 1st, 2011 - The Archive
Ed Parkinson on how Darlington’s demise means Hartlepool need a new local rival
For the best part of a century Hartlepool and Darlington were bound together through shared derbies that added a couple of high points to what were, more often than not, long and dreary seasons. Holding little hope of any more substantial achievement, fans of both clubs focused intensely on beating “them” once or twice a year. There was the occasional season apart but the breaks never lasted long as both clubs quickly returned to their natural habitat of the fourth division.
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Tuesday, November 1st, 2011 - The Archive
An unlikely agreement in South Yorkshire may benefit both Sheffield clubs, reports Tom Hocking
As the Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday players run out at Bramall Lane this month the rivalry in the stands will be as volatile as ever. United’s directors and executives, however, will be welcoming some familiar faces from across the city, having spent their summers locked in negotiations.
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Tuesday, November 1st, 2011 - The Archive
Pm Doutreligne is proud to support a Brussels club with a singular history, and opposes a merger with local rivals
In August my team, Union Saint-Gilloise, played a pre-season friendly, five miles away at FC Brussels. Although both based in the Belgian capital, the two clubs could hardly be any more different.
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Tuesday, November 1st, 2011 - The Archive